Trương Quang Thịnh

Hiding out in an abandoned house, a wanted fugitive obsessively hunts down a mouse stealing his meager food. But after capturing the creature, he sees his own hunted, fearful existence reflected in it—sparking a bond that forces him to re-evaluate his life on the run.

Kim is 15; his father and step-mother have two buffalo, their lifeline as subsistence rice farmers. During the rainy season, there's no grass and the buffalo are starving. Kim volunteers to take the beasts inland to find food. On this coming-of-age journey, Kim sees men mistreat women, men fight with men, and French taxes rob the poor. He works for Lap, a buffalo herder whose past is entangled with Kim's parents, and he makes friends who will lead him to his place in the world.